


Union

by Karieauthoress (ksrandomme), ksrandomme



Category: The Sentinel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-15
Updated: 2010-06-15
Packaged: 2017-10-18 09:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksrandomme/pseuds/Karieauthoress, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksrandomme/pseuds/ksrandomme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blair's first official conversation with the newest IA officer is setting off all sorts of warnings in Jim and starts them on a new road together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Union

 

Blair sighed as they rode the elevator up to the 8th floor, his anxiety sending his heart rate higher than normal. He knew that Jim was monitoring him, and he knew that Jim was worried. But he also knew that Jim wouldn’t say anything, not until after IA had their inevitable meeting with them for de-briefing.

 

But he knew it had been a righteous shoot. He’d made sure of it, walked through the procedures by the book. He had done no wrong. And the evidence would show that fact, of course. But still he was nervous. The last time he had been across the table from IA, he was being pressured to give evidence that Jim was a dirty cop. Thankfully these weren’t the same IA investigators as then. Only Sheila was left from the old crew. Oh if only he got her in the room, then he could be sure of an unbiased ear.

 

The elevator arrived at their floor and Blair raised a small prayer of thanks to all the gods. He still tended to take the stairs at the loft, and any other place he could get away with. As the doors opened, he and Jim faced out towards Major Crimes and Simon Banks, Captain, friend. Beside him stood Sheila Irwin and another man he didn’t recognize. Jim stiffened beside him, a hand on his shoulder. Blair glanced up at him and saw the set jaw and ice chip eyes glaring at the IA investigators.

 

Before Blair could step out, Jim’s hand skated up his neck from his shoulder and clasped him just behind the ears, squeezing gently before releasing him to step off the elevator. Blair flicked another glance back at his partner, confusion plain on his face.

 

This wasn’t an unusual occurrence, this touching that Jim did. In fact, Blair had lost count the number of times Jim had mapped him in the four years they knew each other. But in the last two weeks Jim had been much more demonstrative of his concern for Blair, calling him at all hours, hovering over him during a case. And now, this intimate squeezing of his neck before sending Blair off to the lion’s den.

 

Jim shrugged as Blair turned away from him and walked up to Simon. Before the big man could make a move towards him, the other investigator, the new comer, intercepted him rudely. “*Detective* Sandburg, if you could come this way? We can get this over with quickly and as painlessly as possible.”

 

Banks blinked as did Irwin when Blair was hustled off to Interrogation room three, the one without surveillance equipment. Blair’s concern inched up a notched as he glanced over his shoulder at the partner he was leaving behind. Jim’s rigid posture told Blair everything he needed to know about Jim’s agitation. It was the last thing he saw before the door was shut between them.

 

The, as yet unnamed, IA investigator waved a hand in silent invitation towards the metal table in the center of the room. Blair moved to one of the chairs and plopped down, relaxing against the back in an arrogant pose. He *so* didn’t want to be here. It’s not like the guy he shot *died* or anything. But then, he was the newest detective in Major Crimes, and he was the most watched due to his dubious past.

 

“Thank you for taking time out to let me clarify things in this bust, Detective.” The investigator’s voice went from condescending to soothing in the space of a heartbeat, causing Blair to mentally sit up and take notice. He struggled not to let himself show any emotions. He knew that he was under suspicion by all levels of the PD, but this guy was trying to buddy up to him too fast. He smiled easily and replied flippantly.

 

“Yeah, whatever man. Look, how long’s this gonna take?” he asked while staring the man down. The man, who was being irritating in not giving his name, raised a brow in surprise.

 

“You have somewhere to be, Detective?”

 

Blair rolled his eyes and turned to stare at the wall before answering, “It’s my night to cook, and I’m hoping to get out of here without having to resort to ‘Wonderburger’, if you must know.”

 

The man chuckled at the answer. He didn’t open the file folder sitting on the desk, but instead came around the table and leaned against the edge of it, right beside Blair. The young cop stared up at the man with a sardonic gaze.

 

“Just what is it you want, Mr. ...? Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t catch the name,” Blair pressed.

 

The man gave him a toothy grin before replying, “Richard Marshall, Internal Affairs.”

 

Blair let that filter through his brain. He remembered Simon saying something about a new IA cop coming in. Jim had been acting off the last two weeks since then. More touching and wanting to know where Blair was at all times. Almost as if Jim was afraid that Blair would leave without the attention. Or worse.

 

“So, now that you know who I am and I know who you are, let’s get down to business.” Marshall leaned over, coming well into Blair’s personal space. Blair didn’t give him the satisfaction of flinching.

 

“Would this business be about the man I shot? Or did you have something else in mind?” Blair growled. Marshall slid forward, his body settling in on the desk and his maleness uncomfortably close. He arched over to stare firmly at Blair.

 

“The business of Sentinel and Companion, Blair.” Marshall’s words were slanted to be heard only by Blair, who struggled to control the instant shiver that threatened to rush through him.

 

“I thought that was dealt with, Marshall. There is no Sentinel here in Cascade. That dissertation leak was a mistake that was corrected, with dangerous ramifications for me. I don’t want to go back there again.” Blair held himself rigidly controlled as he responded with disdain. Marshall didn’t seem fazed by the denial. Instead he reached out and laid a hand on Blair’s shoulder, fingers kneading the muscle and flesh there. Blair shoved him off and stood, putting distance between them. “Back off, man. I don’t know what you’re playing at but I’m not interested in the game.”

 

“No game, Blair,” Marshall said, moving to follow Blair and running his fingers up Blair’s back, stopping at the short hair exposing his neck. Blair flinched out from under the unwanted touch.

 

“I said, I’m not interested, man. What’s your angle anyway? I thought this was business, not a seduction attempt.” Blair snarled as he twisted around and slapped the man’s hand away from him. Marshall took that moment to press forward, attempting to pin Blair against the wall with his superior strength and body mass. But Blair wasn’t having it and slipped away with great agility.

 

Heading for the door, Blair turned his attention back to Marshall, whose wide eyes were dilated with desire. It was worse than he feared. Marshall wasn’t just pushing buttons to set him off. The man was not going to be put off by a simple ‘no thank you’ from Blair. A sigh erupted and Blair glared hard at Marshall, allowing his expression to convey his displeasure at the prospect of being with the IA cop.

 

“If we are done here, Marshall, I have things to do and people to see,” so saying he turned towards the door again, not expecting to feel a sudden weight crush him from behind and a hand in his hair holding him in place while lips caressed his ear.

 

“Let’s get this straight, I want you. I know that Ellison is not giving you what you need. I could make it so good for you. I would cherish you the way you should be. I would keep you safe and happy.” With a twist and a jerk, Blair was against the wall next to the door, Marshalls hands planted to either side while the man loomed over him. “If you were with me, you wouldn’t be ridiculed. You wouldn’t be ignored. You would be treated with respect again.”

 

“I’m very happy where I am, and contrary to popular belief, I am not embarrassed, nor am I ignored by the people that matter to me the most.” Blair wanted to say more, he would have said more, but he was cut off by the door to the interrogation room slamming open to reveal a very pissed off Sentinel. Things were about to go from bad to worse unless Blair moved quickly, which he did. “Jim! You done?”

 

Jim stood with one hand still on the handle of the door, his eyes looking straight through Marshall to latch on to Blair’s. Blair shuddered at the anger harnessed behind the blue of those eyes. His partner nodded curtly just once to Blair’s question. Blair pasted on a smile, “Cool, I think we are too. Aren’t we, Investigator Marshall?”

 

Marshall reluctantly stepped back, letting Blair have room to get past him and out the door. Blair promptly ignored the man and looked around until he caught Simon’s eye. “Hey Captain, if it’s all right with you, I think Jim is hurting from the fall he took during the chase. If you don’t mind, we’ll come back tomorrow to write up our reports.”

 

Simon didn’t say much, just tipped his head once in reply. His eyes were first on Jim, and then on Marshall behind them. Blair felt vaguely slighted at this, and wondered what was going through the big man’s mind. But then he was being hustled off by Jim, who had taken hold of his arm and steered him straight towards the elevator, past the elevator and on to the stairs. After practically racing down the 9 flights of stairs to the basement, Jim put Blair in the truck, went around to the driver side, started the vehicle and pealed out of the parking garage on a straight course for home.

 

Blair let out a sigh of relief. Relief to be away from work, away from the Internal Affairs, and be headed for the loft. And relief that Jim wasn’t kicking him out, but pulling him closer. Maybe when they got home he could figure out what was wrong with his partner this time!

 

o-O-o

 

The entire march up from the parking lot, Jim had not let go of Blair’s arm once. It was getting damned unnerving. Unlocking the door with one hand, Jim pushed Blair inside ahead of him, slamming and locking the door quickly. Blair tried to rotate his arm to get his jacket back on correctly while walking towards his bedroom, irritation plain in the lines of his body. Jim threw his keys in the basket next to the door and stalked behind his partner, grabbing his arm again and spinning him to back him against the wall.

 

“Lay off, man!” hissed Blair as Jim came in close and sniffed his hair. A soft snarl greeted his warning and he pushed back the bigger man as far away as he could. Jim caught hold of his wrists, bringing his hands up against the wall over his head, clutching both hands in one of his and using the other to map his partner’s body. Blair bucked against him, “Jim, I said lay off! I’m not interested in the primal act you got going here.”

 

“Mine,” muttered Jim. Blair’s eyes went wide in shock. He shoved again with his body, as his arms were pinned above him, giving him no leverage.

 

“Jim back up, stop crowding me. I had enough of that from Marshall; I don’t need it from you!” Jim ignored him as he sniffed along Blair’s short curls, only now coming back from their original hacking job from his short stint in the Academy.

 

“Another me,” growled Jim as he moved his nose along the forehead and down to a nearby ear. Blair held still after that and tried to assess the situation from a different point of view. The Sentinel was out of the cage, so to speak, and Blair realized he was being scented to ferret out how much of a hold the other Sentinel had on him. He knew the answer to that was none. He wanted nothing to do with Marshall, the guy gave him the creeps.

 

But Jim didn’t know that right now. With a soft voice, Blair called to the more rational mind within his partner, “Jim I need you to stop a minute. Can you do that? Can you stop, and... and, just listen, okay?”

 

The Sentinel paused in his inspection, a low rumble sounding from his throat as he sniffed an arm. Blair swallowed and blinked his eyes a moment, this was not good. He was becoming quickly effected by this most personal of inspections. But he needed to do this, if nothing else to bring Jim back to a level of rationale to where they could talk and figure out what’s the biggest threat, and how to deal with it. “Jim, I need you to focus here, okay? I want you to smell my, smell my neck and tell me what you sense. Come on, Big guy, tell me what’s there.”

 

Jim paused in his mapping and looked back into Blair’s eyes, ice blue orbs nearly eclipsed by the irises. Damn this could either be really good, or really bad. “Jim, please, my neck. Sniff my neck, just behind the jaw.”

 

Blair knew what Jim would find there. Just before they had been split up, Jim had reached and grasped Blair’s neck, giving it a warm squeeze before they walked away. As Jim began to scent the area in question, his snarls and growls became soft purrs and Blair relaxed just a bit. “See, Jim? I’m your partner, no one else’s. It’s your scent, put there by you. No one else, no matter where else you smell, right there, that’s you. Your mark, on me, always man.”

 

Jim shuddered in response to Blair’s low voiced words. Blair took a deep breath, and Jim followed his silent direction. They let out a breath together as Jim pulled back to stare back at Blair again. “Mine?”

 

Blair smiled sadly. All this time and Jim still didn’t get it. “Yours, Jim. Always yours.”

 

Jim smiled faintly, almost a match for Blair’s slow grin, just before leaning forward and kissing Blair on the mouth. Blair gasped at the contact and tried to pull back, banging his head against the wall in his haste. “Wha?”

 

Jim pulled back in puzzlement. “Mine?”

 

The uncertainty in that one word plea was enough to make Blair cry. Oh gods, why did it have to be now? Why couldn’t it have been before? He should have seen this so long ago when they were first getting close to each other, before the dissertation mess, before Alex, before Incacha died, before Quinn. There were so many times, and they had always laughed it off as being friends, buddies, brothers. But never had they spoken of this.

 

“Jim, is this what you want?” his whisper sounded too faint to his ears. But Jim could surely hear him as he leaned in closer, their eyes meeting and locking in place.

 

“I’ve wanted this for a while, ever since Lash I think.” And there was his Jim, speaking coherent words into sentences again. He smiled back at his partner.

 

“So have I, for about the same amount of time,” he replied with all honesty. It must have been the right thing to say as Jim swooped in for another soft brush of lips, holding himself over Blair and breathing his air for a moment before pressing closer. Blair sighed and opened his mouth to Jim, fusing lips together and rushing headlong into a soul searing kiss.

 

This time when Jim pulled back, he released Blair’s arms and Blair took that moment to wrap his hands around his Sentinel’s head and pull him in for another kiss. It wasn’t enough, never enough, and Blair clung for all he was worth as Jim moved in, wrapping his arms around and holding Blair to him. Blair wasn’t complaining, enjoying the feeling of protectiveness that Jim was exhibiting over him. Their kisses took each other’s breathe away, reducing them to one word commands of ‘upstairs’, ‘bed’ and ‘lube’.

 

He didn’t know how they got up to the loft, but they managed it and soon Jim had Blair spread, pressing into him with the head of his dick and pushing for home. Blair let out a heartfelt groan as Jim slide balls deep into him, leaving him clutching the sheets and clenching his jaw in an effort not to scream. God but that felt good! Their coupling was hard and fast, frantic to reach the finish line with all due haste. In the end Jim leaned forward over Blair’s bowed back and bit him on the neck, just behind the jaw, and sent Blair over the edge into ecstasy. Blair felt the flood of his lover’s seed fill him immediately after and sighed.

 

Afterwards Jim pulled out gently and lay to spoon up behind him, wrapping him up in strong arms, one bicep being used as an impromptu pillow. They were silent for long minutes, each trying to process what had just happened. It was Jim who spoke first, the words he used instantly putting Blair back on alert. “I’m sorry.”

 

Blair flipped out of his arms, sitting up to stare down at his Sentinel. “Hell no, you are not regretting this any more than I am, so stop! No guilt, man. Not allowed.”

 

Jim gazed back at his spunky, and spunked, partner. “Blair, this can’t be what you signed on for with this Sentinel gig, this cop gig, this partner gig.” He flinched at the hard edge his lover’s eyes took on as he was stared down. “I just... I mean, I hate going weird like that.”

 

Blair shook his head, “This is something I’ve been expecting, ever since we shared that vision, Jim. We just didn’t understand. I think Marshall had it right. You and I were partners in name only; you had yet to claim me as your companion, your partner. Not in that way.”

 

Jim shook his head, “But what about your sex life, Chief? You can’t tell me that you can immediately give up women for me?”

 

Blair rolled his eyes and waved a hand, “Have you *seen* any girls in my life lately, man? Come on, I’ve been dedicated to you for four years. I am so ready to stop running around, tying girls up on dates to keep the right sort of image in the minds of our fellow cops. I didn’t want you to catch flack for my flip-flop dating practices. I am more than happy to be yours, only yours, in every possible way.”

 

Jim dared a half hearted smiled, his expression cautious. “I just don’t want you to think, down the road, that you are missing out.”

 

“On what? A wife? A family of kids? Jim, I’ve seen people married, it’s often not all it’s cracked up to be. And having kids? No, not me. I have my hands full enough with you. You think I want a mini me to contend with?” Blair slipped back into Jim’s arms. “No, I’m happy here. Don’t push me away, please?”

 

Jim squeezed him close, “No, I won’t.”

 

Blair smiled and they relaxed against each other. Another few minutes of silence and Blair whispered into the growing dark, “You have to curb that tendency of yours of violence towards those who threaten me, Jim.”

 

“He was trying to steal what was mine,” Jim growled. Blair stroked the skin along his arm to settle him again.

 

“I know, Jim. I know. But I have put too much into this image of tough guy Sandburg, taking up a gun to back up his friend, to have it torn down like this.” Blair felt Jim about to respond and stopped him with a pinch.

 

“Ow!” Jim retorted. Blair grinned.

 

“Are you listening to me?” he asked in a sharper tone. Jim nodded and Blair continued. “I know you feel you have to protect me, but I strapped on the gun. I did the courses. I can take care of myself. Besides, Marshall needs to know who the boss around here is really.”

 

Jim grinned and Blair could hear it in his voice as he replied, “I’m sure you will show him the error of his ways, Chief.”

 

Blair grinned with him, chuckling just a bit as he agreed. “Count on it, man.”

 

o-O-o

 

The next morning was normal and relaxed. Blair made breakfast, Jim made coffee, they showered together, ate together, dressed each other. But there was a major buzz in the air, something almost palpable to Blair as he brushed his hair and reached over to Jim’s stack of clothing for one of his sweaters. Jim watched him, saying nothing. The move was deliberate and Blair’s eyes twinkled in delight as he pulled the green sweater over his head.

 

The ride in to the station was also easy and relaxed. Blair noticed that Jim didn’t appear agitated as before, and he had a feeling he knew why. Jim was now assured that Blair wasn’t going to leave him voluntarily. It was time, therefore, for Internal Affairs investigator Richard Marshall to learn the same. Blair was very much looking forward to their conversation.

 

It didn’t take long. Ten minutes after hanging up his coat, Simon leaned out of his office and fixed Blair with a hard stare. Blair matched his gaze and nodded once. Simon flicked his eyes to Jim, then back to Blair, who read the subtle question and again nodded, this time with a half smile on his lips. Simon winked understanding before bellowing, “Sandburg! IA wants another meeting, get to it so you can get it over with and get back to that paperwork.”

 

“I hear ya, Captain,” Blair responded before heading out. Jim caught his arm just above the elbow and Blair slowed to meet his worried expression with confidence shining on his own face. “Jim, it’s going to be the last time I have to deal with him. You understand?”

 

Jim nodded stiffly before letting go. Blair relaxed his arm and grinned. Leaning in close to Jim’s ear, Blair whispered, “Tonight, it’s my turn to drive.”

 

Jim’ ears turned crimson as he made his way back to his desk. Blair turned on his heel and headed for the Offices of Internal Affairs. He’ll show Investigator Marshall who belonged to whom around here. And it would be the last time he’d have to do it.

 

~end~


End file.
